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10/10 Dear Readers

an old acquaintance, and subject of my next post

Let’s have a conversation! It’s easier than you think. Although the blog post comment box says to log in, give email etc. – you don’t have to! The message is just there to protect the blog from spammers, and I can’t remove it. Because I trust you, dear readers, I’m sharing this little secret. To comment on a post you only have to give a first name. “Liking” a post however, still requires logging in. My hope for this blog is to create a community of folks who love BCSNP, urban nature, birds, habitat restoration, frogs, pollinators, native plants, turtles, deer, backyard habitat, salamanders, butterflies – you name it …. So what do YOU think? Take a moment to share your thoughts with all of us.

deborah utz

Deany

Good News! The Nightingale MSD project is about to wrap up. Directly behind me, grass has been planted. The area almost looks the same, minus the trees. There is now a big open area directly behind me. This is good news! I believe it will be safe to now adopt the box turtles that you saved from the area and took care of. I think they can be returned. I had really hoped that the two box turtles we seen for years would return, they did not. The two box turtles that would return each year to visit with us, Ms. T had what appeared to look like a question mark on her shell and Jr. had what appeared to look like a butterfly on his shell. Please let me know when it is a good time for me to come to the nature center to talk to you about this. I am so excited!

I love reading your post. I especially enjoyed “9/18Turtle Weather”. The posts are very informative. I also love the pictures that you share. I now know, thanks to you, what some of the bees I see in my habitat are called. Do you use a cell phone camera or a digital camera to take your pictures? If it is a digital camera, what brand is it? I need to get another camera to take nature pictures.

I keep a picture diary of the butterflies, dragonflies, bees, wasps, birds, hummingbirds and other critters that visit us. I also keep a picture diary of the flowers that grow in our habitat. This year I seen more hummingbird moths at my butterfly bushes.

I see by your pictures that I need to add mountain mint to my pollinator garden. I have added additional milkweed seeds to hopefully have more milkweed next year. I seen many monarchs and swallowtail, also painted lady butterflies this year. The one butterfly I did not see this year, the buckeye butterfly.

I am on a campaign to introduce my neighbors to the wonders that I experience in my backyard habitat. I harvest seeds and plants to share with my neighbors. I have planted black-eyed susan, maximilian sunflowers, milkweed, goldenrod, new england aster and mist flowers, in the yards of some of my neighbors. : )

Thanks for the wonderful information and pictures that you share.

I look forward to hearing from you. Also congrats on the school projects you are involved with. Wonderful!

Take care!
Deany

Sorry for the long reply, I tend to get carried away when I talk about nature and our backyard habitat.

Deany – As for the camera, it is a Panasonic “Lumix” 10 mega pixel, with Leica lens. It can be found lightly used on Ebay for $50-60. It’s the only small camera I’ve ever seen with a macro feature that really works. But I still do a LOT of photo editing on the computer to improve clarity and color. I like the camera very much; it’s tiny and takes good pics.

I also have not seen Buckeyes this year, wonder what’s up with them. Wish I could get pics of your Sphinx Moth visitors – will have to do a post on your garden next summer.